Yesterday, Russia once again took aim at Ukraine's weakened energy infrastructure. As in recent weeks, their missiles and drones targeted power plants in various regions of the country. A day earlier, Russian forces destroyed a major thermal power plant in the Kyiv region. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, justifies the offensive by Ukrainian drone attacks against Russian refineries. "After the impacts against our energy facilities, we had to respond", he said.
Since the beginning of March, several refineries in Russian territory were attacked by Ukrainian kamikaze drones. On the 12th of that month, they hit a Lukoil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. It was one of the largest producers of gasoline in the country, which led to a temporary increase in prices. On the same day, an oil tank caught fire in the Oblast of Oriol.
Yesterday, Russian anti-aircraft defenses intercepted four Ukrainian drones near Novoishakhtinsk, in Rostov Oblast, where there is an oil refinery that has been attacked before. Regional governor Vassili Golubev said there was no damage or casualties.
The Russian tactic is to use high-precision weaponry to disable Ukraine's electrical infrastructure. The Russian Ministry of Defense emphasizes that the attacks are directed only against the neighboring country's military and energy facilities, as well as related infrastructure.
Since the last week of March, the attacks have been directed against facilities outside Kyiv province, which are less protected. Then they damaged seven thermal stations and two hydroelectric stations. Despite this, on Thursday their missiles completely destroyed the thermal power plant of Tripilia, the most powerful in the region surrounding the capital.
The strike highlights Ukraine's lack of resources to repel Russian attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday again asked for more air defense systems from Western allies.
The Ukrainian authorities have not specified the damage caused in these attacks, but they fear that it is considerable and that it cannot be repaired before winter. The company DTEK, Ukraine's largest energy producer, announced that it had lost 80% of its production capacity following the March attacks.
During previous winters, Kyiv accused Moscow of destroying electrical installations to leave the population without electricity and water.
Vladimir Putin seemed to respond to this this week, assuring that last winter attacks like the current ones were not launched for humanitarian reasons. The Kremlin chief said Russia was forced to respond now because Ukrainian drones had damaged Russian refineries.
"For humanitarian reasons, no strike was inflicted in the winter, we did not want to leave social institutions, hospitals, etc. without energy supply, but after the attacks on our energy facilities we were obliged to respond ", he said on Thursday after meeting with his Belarusian ally, Aleksandr Lukashenko, adding that the attacks against Ukrainian energy facilities are part of the "demilitarization" of Ukraine, one of the goals he set when on February 24, 2022, he launched the "special military operation" and ordered the army to enter the territory of the neighboring country.
The Russian Ministry of Defense assured that, as a result of the attacks, the work of military industry enterprises was interrupted and the supply of fuel to the armed forces of Ukraine was hampered.
Yesterday the Ukrainian military reported that several energy installations in the country were "in the crosshairs" of the Russians. Ukrainian defenses destroyed 16 of the 17 Shahed kamikaze drones launched by the Russians.
The spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Southern Command, Natalia Gumeniuk, said on television that the impact of a downed drone caused a fire in some facilities in Dnipropetrovsk province. According to the medium ZN.UA, it was a plant in the city of Kriví Rih.
Electronic Suspilne reported several explosions in Khmelnitski. Aerial alarms were also heard in Vinnytsia, Kropivnitski, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Odessa.
